The present invention relates in general to a massage device. More particularly the present invention relates to a hand held, electrically operated body and/or joints massage device having changeable massage heads to obtain selected stroking, rubbing and/or kneading massaging effects of all body parts including body joints such as heels, elbows, knees and shoulders.
A body massage may be divided into three levels of rising intensities. The first level, known in the art as stroking, involves a smoothing action characterized by mild to medium pressure applied onto a body part being massaged. Stroking is meant to warm-up and thereby prepare the body part being massaged to the following massage levels. The second level, known in the art as rubbing, involves a pressing and rubbing action characterized by movement of the tissue and medium to high pressure applied onto the body part being massaged. Rubbing is meant to increase the blood flow in the body part being massaged and thereby to prepare that body part to the third level. The third level, known in the art as kneading, involves a pressing and kneading actions characterized by high pressure applied onto the body part being massaged. Kneading is typically a deep and thorough muscle massage meant to bring about muscle relaxation.
The three levels of the body massage thus described are typically manually applied by the hands of a massagist (e.g., a physiotherapist) onto selected body parts of a treated individual. This process involves a hard labor by the massagist and typically extends over a relatively prolonged time (30) minutes or more).
Thus, over the years various types of mechanical massage devices have been introduced to the art for different massaging applications. Typically, each of these massage devices includes a motor and a movement transmission mechanism for transmission of movement, a massage head or a platform and protruding massage elements to be contacted with the body part being massaged.
These massage devices may be categorized according to the movements of massage elements associated with their operation. These movements are of three kinds, (i) a rotational movement of the massage head, referred to hereinbelow as a type I movement, (ii) a radial or conical rotational movement of each of the massage elements, referred to hereinbelow as a type II movement and (iii) a linear reciprocal movement of each of the massage elements, referred to hereinbelow as a type III movement.
Most of the prior art massage elements perform only one kind of movement. For example: (a) U.S. Pat. No. 1,899,208 to Murphy, U.S. Pat. No. 2,519,790 to Quinn, U.S. Pat. No. 2,203,976 to Auyagi and U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,733 to Gordon disclose massage devices characterized by a rotational movement of the massage head (type I); (b) U.S. Pat. No. 1,931,849 to Matson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,232,493 to Stuckey et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,439 to Boller, U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,655 to Smal and U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,034 to Yamasaki et al., disclose massage devices characterized by either a radial or a conical rotational movement of each of the massage elements (type II); and (c) U.S. Pat. No. 2,067,991 to Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,392 to Speyer and U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,860 to Doria, disclose massage devices characterized by a linear reciprocal movement of each of the massage elements (type III). Since only a single type of movement is associated with these and similar massage devices they are limited in their massaging effects.
Some prior art massage devices are characterized by a superposition of two of the above mentioned movement types. For example, U.S. Pat No. 1,777,151 to Muttger-Pelli discloses a massage device having a head equipped with concentrically arranged balls each rotating around a center point (i.e., type I movement), and at the same time each of the balls can also rotate so that each of the balls travels a small circular path (i.e., type II movement). The massage device of Muttger-Pelli further includes selecting means (in the form of pin 24, as shown in FIG. 1 there) for selecting between two modes of operation, wherein according to the first mode of operation both type I and type II movements are simultaneously actuated, whereas according to the second mode of operation only type I movement is actuated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,491 to Bellandi discloses massaging devices having a head equipped with plurality of massage elements. The massaging devices of Bellandi are equipped with a horizontal cam, and can perform type I and/or type III movements, yet Bellandi fails to describe selecting means for selecting from these types of movements.
All of the prior art massage devices described hereinabove offer limited massaging effects and are in some cases specialized for limited massaging applications. Furthermore, non of the above devices is suitable for body joints massage.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a body and joints massage device having changeable operating massage heads to obtain selected stroking, rubbing and/or kneading massaging effects of all body parts and massage of body joints such as heels, elbows, knees and shoulders.